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Autonomous Collision-Free Navigation of Microvehicles in Complex and Dynamically Changing Environments
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posted on 2017-08-12, 00:00 authored by Tianlong Li, Xiaocong Chang, Zhiguang Wu, Jinxing Li, Guangbin Shao, Xinghong Deng, Jianbin Qiu, Bin Guo, Guangyu Zhang, Qiang He, Longqiu Li, Joseph WangSelf-propelled
micro- and nanoscale robots represent a rapidly
emerging and fascinating robotics research area. However, designing
autonomous and adaptive control systems for operating micro/nanorobotics
in complex and dynamically changing environments, which is a highly
demanding feature, is still an unmet challenge. Here we describe a
smart microvehicle for precise autonomous navigation in complicated
environments and traffic scenarios. The fully autonomous navigation
system of the smart microvehicle is composed of a microscope-coupled
CCD camera, an artificial intelligence planner, and a magnetic field
generator. The microscope-coupled CCD camera provides real-time localization
of the chemically powered Janus microsphere vehicle and environmental
detection for path planning to generate optimal collision-free routes,
while the moving direction of the microrobot toward a reference position
is determined by the external electromagnetic torque. Real-time object
detection offers adaptive path planning in response to dynamically
changing environments. We demonstrate that the autonomous navigation
system can guide the vehicle movement in complex patterns, in the
presence of dynamically changing obstacles, and in complex biological
environments. Such a navigation system for micro/nanoscale vehicles,
relying on vision-based close-loop control and path planning, is highly
promising for their autonomous operation in complex dynamic settings
and unpredictable scenarios expected in a variety of realistic nanoscale
scenarios.